Based on common mastering workflows for beginners, “Mastering LXtory” (likely a typo for Mastering History or general Mastering) can be broken down into essential, simple steps to achieve a polished, professional sound. Here are 5 simple tips for complete beginners:
Prepare a Well-Mixed Track: Before mastering, ensure your mix is balanced. Mastering works on the entire song as a single file, so it cannot fix individual instrument issues.
Use Reference Tracks: Compare your track to professionally mastered songs in the same genre to ensure your loudness, tonal balance, and sonic characteristics match industry standards.
Use Essential Tools Sparingly (EQ and Compression): Start with subtle EQ (e.g., subtle boosting or cutting) to adjust the overall tone and gentle compression to “glue” the mix together without destroying dynamics.
Apply Limiting Last: Use a limiter as the final step to increase the loudness to commercial standards while preventing digital clipping.
Check on Multiple Systems: Listen to your master on different speakers (headphones, car, phone) to ensure it “translates” well and sounds good everywhere.
These steps help in crafting a cohesive final product, bridging the gap between a raw mix and a polished song.
> “it’s then important to listen to the final mastered file make sure that you’re actually happy with how it sounds… check for any problems that may have occurred during the export.” Use code with caution. If you are interested, I can provide: Recommendations for free, high-quality mastering plugins A deeper explanation of how to use a limiter Steps on how to properly set up a DAW for mastering